


Names

by Marinia



Category: Sander Sides, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Gen, Young Sides, but not really, character piece, chosen names, slight bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 11:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14163690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marinia/pseuds/Marinia
Summary: Vigilance had always tried to protect Thomas. Anxiety had never been his name. Virgil had a reason for not telling the others what he called himself.





	Names

**Author's Note:**

> 1) This all plays during Thomas's childhood/adolescence  
> 2) this will maybe become a series? I'm not sure yet  
> 3) Comments are much appreciated <3
> 
> I hope you enjoy my little character study

When he first introduced himself, he was insecure and saw danger in every corner and every shadow, but he had managed to keep calm, even as the others had stared him down, clearly displeased.  
“I’m Vigilance” he had muttered, playing with the sleeves of his shirt and trying to swallow the air that was stuck in his throat.

“Hi! I’m Morality, I was here first” the tallest of them grinned, and Vigilance had nodded, a small but grateful smile on his face. Seemed like at least someone didn’t hate him on sight.  
But he knew those were bad thoughts, so he dragged them to the back of his mind, where they wouldn’t disturb him or Thomas. “Well, Vigilance, I don’t know what you want here, but we managed fine without you, so sit back and watch, okay?” Creativity said, and as he glared at Vigilance he felt his shoulders rise, the pumping of blood beginning to echo in his ears. But… he knew he was here for a reason!  
“Oh yeah? ‘Cause I think Thomas would be really hurt if I hadn’t been there” he muttered, even though he hated having to bring it up. He had managed just fine doing his job out of the subconscious, without a physical form that would weigh him down and forced him to experience everything so much more **intensely**.

 ~~He knew he should’ve formed years ago.~~ _  
_ But he couldn’t change it now, could he? “Now, no reason to argue” Morality smiled, even if it seemed a bit strained. He didn’t want his family to fight! It didn’t matter that Vigilance had formed a few hours ago, he was obviously here to stay.Morality could see how he was different to Mrs. Dragonpuff and Mx. Hydroprank, who had both gone off after a few months. 

Vigilance shrugged and flopped down on the couch Creativity had created for their main hub. Logic looked up from his book. He was currently reading the book on the rainforest that was already showing signs of its regular use, even though there were always pages being added whenever Thomas learned something new. But he quickly returned to his study and Creativity huffed before turning tail to go into Imagination. He didn’t want to deal with this new annoyance. It had been infuriating enough when Logic had gained more power until he was on par with Morality... He didn’t want to think about what would happen if Vigilance would grow in power the same way. 

Morality looked after him but suppressed the urge to go after him. He knew that Creativity would come to him when he wanted to. Also, Imagination was scary. He sat down next to Vigilance, his hands under his thighs so he wouldn’t gesture as much ~~_he knew the others didn’t mind, but his Friend had told him it was annoying, so he wouldn’t take any chances with the new Side_.~~ He still almost jumped in place with pent-up energy, but that was normal for him.  
“Do you want to do something?” he asked, grin still plastered on his face. Vigilance flinched at his voice and stared at him for a second, before gulping and nodding. “Yeah. Sorry I spaced out, this place is… different from here” he whispered and now Logic looked up from his book again, even putting it down. “You mean that you were here before forming?” he asked, but Vigilance shrunk under his scrutinizing gaze. “Yeah? I… I thought I could do my job just fine out of the subconscious…” he murmured. 

Morality really hoped that the other would quickly grow comfortable enough around them to speak normally. “That’s really interesting, so you already had a-“Logic’s face scrunched up in thought as he searched for the right word. Morality didn’t really understand why he always tried to sound like their teachers, especially since it made it so difficult to understand him sometimes. “Had a sentience? Even though you were just” he waved his hand around. “Subconscious stuff?”  
“Uhm, yeah. It was like… I was me, but I could… see you more? Like, I could see the energy around you and stuff. But otherwise I was me, but I had no form… it’s nice, you’re never lonely, and there’s always some comforting thing when I panic too much” he tried to explain, playing with his sleeves as he watched down at them.  
Logic continued his questionnaire, eventually getting paper and a pencil and to Morality it seemed like they got along fine. They both talked like their teachers, but Vigilance was obviously still anxious.  
~  
It turned out that Vigilance was anxious most the time.  
And even though Logic could often calm him with his reasoning and his Teacher Voice, it still had an influence on Thomas. He grew more shy and reserved, it got more difficult for him to ask for help and he wasn’t as adventurous as before.  
Creativity was having none of it. 

He was frustrated, he was angry at Vigilance, he didn’t want to deal with his dumb worrying- He just wanted things to go back to normal!  
But it didn’t, and it was getting annoying. He tried all he could, he made it a game to force Thomas out of his shell, he took out some of the more threatening parts in his daydreams to make it seem easier for Thomas, he did all he could.  
And yet, Vigilance always had something to complain and whimper about. It was simply not fair!  
~  
Creativity was currently going with Ashanti, a name she had read in one of the books she had to convince Logic was worth their time. And Ashanti was also currently in a fight with Vigilance, because he was afraid of a freaking birthday party! 

“I don’t care that they stared at Thomas that one time! They invited us and our friends are gonna be there! Can’t you-Logic, can’t you tell Negative Nancy why he’s being stupid right now?” she asked, gesturing at the logical Side, long hair obscuring her vision. But of course he had his head in a book –Chemistry now- and rose an eyebrow at Ashanti. “I can see Vigilance’s concerns, even if he blew them a bit out of proportion. And it’s just a birthday party, we have tests to study for and homework to do, not to forget that Mom’s birthday is coming up and you still have to think of something to get her” he said, before looking back down.  
“But shouldn’t we go meet our friends? We were all so excited about it until a few hours ago, and it took so long to choose the right gift” Patton chimed in. “Yes, Patton!” Ashanti proclaimed. “We were happy about it, but then a **special someone** had to be overly anxious!”

Vigilance crossed his arms, standing up. “Listen, I’m just saying that it probably isn’t worth the risk of public humiliation to go to the party of a jerk who looks at us funny every time we see them in the hall!”  
“Vigilance, you’re blowing things out of proportion again” Logic noted, turning his page.  
“So?” the Side screeched. Couldn’t they at least _try_ to understand? “You’re all going to get Thomas bullied, because there’s going to go something wrong, and everyone’s gonna see it, and we’re gonna end up-“ 

“Can’t you **stop**?” Ashanti shouted. “Why can’t you take a risk for once? It’s a freaking party, not a snake pit! But no, you have to be anxious and annoying and altogether unnecessary!”  
She ignored the alarmed look from Patton. “Why do we even bother? You’ll just play up all these small details and end up in a panic anyway! You’re just Anxiety, you know?”  
“I am not!”   
“Oh really? Because last time I checked vigilant people weren’t so fucking pathetically anxious and nothing else!”  
“You-You-Do you…. Okay, what-ever! I’m out of here. Go to your stupid party, I don’t care!”  
Vigilance’s voice broke and he had tears in his eyes, but he managed to swallow his hurt and hide it behind nonchalance as he sunk out and directly into his room.  
~  
They ended up going to the party, but were too anxious to have fun.  
Vigilance never found out about Patton and Logan scolding Roman.  
As Roman still continued to use the name, the hurt grew and turned into bitterness and anger.  
Vigilance told himself it didn’t matter when his name was forgotten.  
Anxiety told himself he didn’t mind _at all._  
~  
Anxiety was hidden in his room, Creativity had just chosen a new name, but it seemed like the Royalty had become part of their Personality so maybe they would soon settle on a name as well. 

The Dark Side was listening to some My Chemical Romance songs that had just come out and looking at the book that was lying on the other side of the room. It seemed to mock him. And it wasn’t like he needed one…. Even if both Patton and Princey had one. But he knew he wasn’t part of their group, he knew it wouldn’t change anything. So really, it was quite ridiculous that the book was even there, and he really should put it back- 

Anxiety chose that moment to take the book.  
It was heavy, counting way over thousand pages, holding all the names Thomas had ever heard.  
He looked through it, and scrunched his nose at the names he found. Even the few that didn’t sound awful didn’t sound like they _matched_ and he really should have known better. 

He put the book away.  
~  
Anxiety looked through the book whenever he couldn’t sleep, which was most times. It took way too long to even get through the names with an “A” but he couldn’t stop himself, driven by the desire to belong, at least in one way.  
~  
Months had gone by when he finally got to names beginning with “V”.  
He knew that he was on the right track as he looked through names that at least shared the first letter of his real name.  
Still, he was almost afraid to get through the section and come out empty.  
~  
“Virgil” 

Anxiety murmured the name to himself, listening to it curl around his tongue and dance over his lips. It was… an unusual name. It sounded like some important person from Rome-maybe a poet? He didn’t know as much about history as Logic. It was definitely not fitting his Emo-aesthetic, and really, he thought again, he should be satisfied with Anxiety, it was maybe not his name, and maybe it didn’t match him at all, and maybe it stung a bit whenever he heard it, but…  
It wasn’t that bad.  
But… as he looked at it. He knew that it was _right._  
Virgil smiled despite himself as he closed the book and moved to get it back to Memory.  
~ 

Virgil laughed when he found out that his name probably literally meant _vigilant_.

It ended up a bit choked and a bit wet.  
But he managed to cover it up when he went to talk with the others.  
~  
It would take much longer for him to trust the others with this name. 

Afraid Roman would replace it yet again.

Afraid the others would go along with it yet again. 


End file.
